KPMG’s new chief executive
Gary ­Wingrove
plans to fuel growth at the $1 billion professional services giant through a series of targeted acquisitions, upping investment across all business lines, and undertaking a major cultural change exercise to support innovation.

“Investment will vary depending on opportunity geographically and by sector," said Mr Wingrove. It will include a combination of takeovers, alliances and external recruitment.

Advisory will the focus of investment activity. “Given the size and scale of our advisory practice – which is half the size of our firm – and given the ­opportunities around consulting, most of our investments will be in advisory," Mr Wingrove said.

He pointed to the “modest acquisition" of social media intelligence company SR7 last Friday is “the first of a series we will undertake".

“That strategy of getting close to people, understanding if we can work with them, then taking that capability in-house through an acquisition is integral to our planning for growth more generally," Mr Wingrove said .

KPMG Australia’s revenue growth has been flat in the six months to December 31. due to “uncertainty surrounding the federal election".

Sales are expected to pick up in the second half on the back of a number of big contract wins and growing confidence .

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KPMG won the statutory audit of Downer EDI and Treasury Wine Estate , in addition to bagging big government advisory engagements.

“We’re hearing boards talking about growth and not just cost cutting. That’s showing up in more transaction ­activity and [public] floats," Mr ­Wingrove said.

“The focus on productivity remains, but the work of the last four or five years to take costs out is largely complete and there’s not a lot left people can do in that space.

Focus on innovation is needed moving forward."

Targeted growth

Wingrove has set a growth target of 8 per cent to 10 per cent growth per annum off the base of the investments being made. “That will be effected by market ­conditions obviously," he said.

“The key performance indicators we’ve put in place measure both ­relative performance given market conditions as well as absolute ­performance."

A newly minted member of the Male Champions of Change group, ­Mr Wingrove has set an ambitious gender diversity target for KPMG Australia: a quarter of the firm’s partnership will be women by July 1, 2016, along with 40 per cent female representation on the leadership team.

It sits alongside two other key goals that go to organisational culture.

KPMG is striving to create a culture “where our people can take risks" and innovate.

But Mr Wingrove also wants the focus back on clients. While he won’t impose a ban on internal meetings between 10am and 4pm like PwC boss
Luke Sayers
, Mr Wingrove has culled ­several internal committees that chewed up partner’s time.

A lot of work has gone into ­stream-lining KPMG’s decision making processes to make the business more responsive over the last six months.

“I’m a great believer in delegated authority rather than directional instruction," Mr Wingrove said.